58 
which lately devaftated a part of Spain. 
“He has proved that it was uot the plague 
of the Levant, but the malady known in’ 
America by the name of yellow fever. 
Citizen Larossz has read fome obfer- 
vations on the different ligaments confi- 
dered in men and in animals ; and he has 
fhewn, by practical arguments and ex- 
amples, that there are cafes in which the 
fe€tion of thofe ligaments may be very ad- 
yantageous. 
Befides thefe manufcript Memoirs, fe- - 
-\ yeral Members of the Clafs have publifh- 
ed, in this trimeftre, a number of printed 
-works ; but we have not time at prefent, 
fays the Secretary, even to quote the titles. 
Prefent State of the New Science of Gal- 
vanifm, being the Report of a late Com- 
smiffion of the National Inftitute, by C. 
CUVIER. 
Accident, the parent of moft difcove- 
ries, has lately favoured the philofophical 
world in'a manner which will render the 
prefent period reroarkable in the hiftory of 
thefciences. Some pieces of metal brought 
into contaé& have manifefted phenomena 
which no fagacity could forefee, and a 
new field has been opened as vaft as it is 
fertile in important applications. The 
influence of thefe phenomena becomes more 
and more extended. Being at firft con- 
fined, according to every appearance, to 
the animal ceconomy, it feems now to act 
an important part in chemiftry. It was 
to the genius ef VOLTA, that we were in- 
debted for this new difcovery. His opi- 
nion, that galvanifm was only an applica- 
tion of eleétricity to the animal ceconomy,~ 
having been confirmed by feveral men of 
fcience, he endeavoured to find out the 
means of increafing its effeéts, fo faras to 
render the real nature of them evident to 
every body. He found that, by multi- 
plying the pairs of metals, difpofing them 
always alternately, and keeping them 
moifi—certain attractions, repulfions, and 
commotions, perfectly fimilar to thofe oc- 
cafioned by the electrical jar, are produced ; 
and that, in general, a pile, formed of 
pieces of filyer, zinc, and moiftened pafte- 
board,*placed alternately, one above the 
other, immediately manifefted ali the ap- 
pearances of -pofitive electricity at the ex- 
tremity where the filver is, and of the ne- 
gative electricity at that end where the 
zine is placed. . There was, however, 
this difference, that a Leyden phial, -once 
difcharged, exhibits no further effects, 
unlefs it be charged again; wkereas Volta’s 
pile conftantly charges itfelf, and its 
effets are continually renewed ; it is only 
7 
Proceedings of Learned Societies. 
fAug. 1, — 
by difcharging it with very large condue= 
tors that its effe€t can be diminifhed even | 
for a fingle moment. The Leyden phial — 
always difcharges, if there be the leaft 
moifture in continuity between its two 
furfaces; but if the pafteboard pieces of 
Volta’s pile are impregnated with ever fo 
much water, its cfrects lofe none of their 
intenfity: the phenomena do not ceafe 
till the pile is entirely immerfed in water. 
Thefe differences have excited fome doubts 
refpecting the perfect identity of galvanifm 
with electricity; and other phenomena, 
ftill more extraordinary, haye increafed 
thefe doubts. sae A 
If the ends of two metallic wires be im+ 
merfed in water, one: of which communi- 
cates with the refinous or negative extre- 
mity of the pile, and the other with the 
vitreous or pofitive; and if they be kept at 
a little diftance from each other, there are 
difengaged from the extremity of the former 
bubbles of hydrogen gas, and from that of 
the other oxygen gas, which becomes fixed 
in the metal when the latter is oxidable, 
or, if it be not fo, rifes in bubbles ; and this 
action continues as long as the apparatus 
remains in this fate. But it is not in this 
that the great fingularity of the phenomena 
confifts, and it is here that galvanifin be- 
gins to enter the province of chemifiry. 
It would have been very natural to confider 
this gas as the product of the decompofi- 
tion of water, if a particular circumftance 
had not excited doubts in regard to this 
explanation. That the difengagement 
may take place, the ends of the wires 
muft be at a certain diftance; if they 
touch, no bubbles are feen. How comes 
it that the oxygen and hydrogen, arifing 
from the fame molecule of water, fhould 
appear at points fo far diftant? And why 
does each of them appear exclufively at 
the wire conneéted with one of the extre- 
mities of the pile, and never at the other ? 
Such was the knowledge refpeéting the 
phenomena of galvani{m at the time of the 
report made to the Clafs in the laft quar- 
ter. All the experiments made in France 
and other countries, arranged and con-~ 
firmetby the commiffion, have tended to. 
confirm the three following refults:— — 
a. An augmentation of intenfity, according 
to the number and extent of the metallic 
furfaces brought info contaét :—z. A con- 
tinued renewal of the aétion:—-3. A pro- - 
duétion of the two gafes by the commu- 
nication of the two extremities of the pile 
through water. 
During the laft three months, philofo- 
phers have redoubled their efforts; their 
curiofity has been excited, above all, by 
the 
